Man Convicted of Killing Satmar Rabbi May Be Released This Week
By Anne Cohen March 20, 2013
A man jailed for 21 years for the murder of a prominent Satmar rabbi might not actually be guilty, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
David Ranta, sentenced to 37.5 years in a maximum-security prison in May 1991 for the violent murder of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger, may be released as early as Thursday, the report added.
Werzberger, an Auschwitz survivor, was shot in the head on February 8, 1990, as an innocent bystander to an ongoing robbery. Faced with the outrage of the Satmar community in Williamsburg, authorities felt extra pressure to find the killer, the Times reported.
But in the decades since Ranta?s conviction, The New York Times wrote, ?nearly every piece of evidence in this case has fallen away.? A number of witnesses disclosed that they had lied on instructions from detectives, or to protect their own interests.
Detective Louis Scarcella and his partner, Stephen Chmil, the Times added, ?broke rule after rule? according to legal documents and reports from the trial.
According to one investigator, the detectives allowed two dangerous criminals to ?leave jail, smoke crack cocaine and visit with prostitutes in exchange for incriminating Mr. Ranta,? the report stated.
One key witness in the case said that one detective had told him who to identify in a lineup. Another crucial to the case ? a convicted rapist ? revealed that he had named Ranta in order to cut a deal.
Ranta, now 58, release may come about, in large part thanks to an investigation conducted by his lawyer, Pierre Sussman. Asked by The New York Times how he survived in prison, he answered he wasn?t sure he really had.
?I?d lie there in the cell at night and I think: I?m the only one in the world who knows I?m innocent,? he said. ?I came in here as a 30-something with kids, a mother who was alive. This case killed my whole life.?
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
